Search results

The purpose of this paper is to compare different employee perceptions of the success of one change: a move to new offices and an open-plan design.

In sum, 25 interviews were carried out in a New Zealand law firm that six months earlier had moved to new premises.

Contrary to academic and practitioner reports that open-plan offices are disliked, participants appreciated the new office space. A well-planned and highly participative program of change management led to positive perceptions of aesthetic design, open communication, collegiality, egalitarianism and inclusiveness.

Given the small sample used in one organization, the study highlights the need for more research into the processes and outcomes of office space changes.

The roles of communication and culture, in particular, collegiality and egalitarianism, were salient factors in a complex web of causes and consequences in this context of change.

to evaluate the experiences of knowledge workers who work in shared workspaces and those who moved from single-cell offices to shared workspaces.

Knowledge workers were surveyed before and after 34% moved from single-cell offices to shared workspaces. The authors exploit this panel design in the analysis.

Shared offices were rated as providing more distraction, less privacy and worsened indoor environment quality (IEQ) (p < 0.05). Perceptions of collaboration and networking also declined in shared workspaces. Distraction and a lack of privacy were negatively associated with self-reported productivity (p < 0.10). Neither IEQ nor collaboration nor networking was significantly associated with productivity. The perceptions of those who moved to shared workspaces and those who had worked in shared workspaces all along were statistically indistinguishable.

The quasi-experimental control provides evidence that it is the office type, not the experience of moving, that accounts for the evaluative changes. There are limitations inherent in using a self-rating performance measure.

Organisations should be aware that the positive outcomes ascribed to shared spaces may not be apparent and that demands may outweigh benefits.

Knowledge workers are particularly impacted by distraction and interruptions to concentrated work. The quasi-experimental design controlled for the Hawthorne effect, demonstrating that it is the office type, not the move, that accounts for differences in perceptions.

This paper aims to report an empirically grounded theoretical framework within which to understand the role of entrepreneurial identity development in the discovery, development and exploitation of opportunity, and to elaborate on how these identity transitions both mobilise and constrain female entrepreneurs.

A qualitative case study-based research design was used in this study. Primary and secondary data were collected from eight female participants (all of whom can be categorised as “mumpreneurs”) and analysed to inform the theoretical framework that is the foundation of the paper.

The authors describe how identity conflict, role congruence and reciprocal identity creation play a critical role in venture creation as a form of entrepreneurship. Drawing on the constructs of identification, self-verification and identity enactment, the authors build a theoretical framework for understanding entrepreneurial identity transitions in relation to opportunity-seeking behaviours.

The work is theoretical in character and based on a sample that, whilst rich in the provision of theoretical insight, is small in scope. Additionally, the sample is located in one geographical context (New Zealand) which likely has implications for the way in which the key constructs are perceived and enacted.

This paper is an attempt to integrate conceptualisations of entrepreneurial identity development with opportunity-related processes in the context of venture creation. A holistic focus on identity transitions and their relevance to perception and action in relation to opportunity (the root of entrepreneurial behaviour) is novel; at this point, it is exploratory in intention and tentative in reach.

The purpose of this paper is to use boundaryless career theory as a perspective from which to explore understanding related to the interplay between life-stage and career transitions in women; and, specifically, the life-stage-related event of motherhood relative to the transition from corporate employment to self-employment.

A qualitative longitudinal research design was operationalized over a four-year period and data from both primary and secondary sources were collected in relation to four New Zealand case studies.

The findings highlight how life-stage events such as motherhood can have a profound influence on both the perception and enactment of careers and career transitions. In total, two primary micro-processes were identified in relation to the career transitions of the female participants into self-employment and were labeled “traditional employment” (relating to role change; integrating work and life domains; opportunity seeking; and support) and “creating boundaries” (relating to: compartmentalization of responsibility, life-stage events, work models, and business growth and success).

Exploratory in nature; small in scale; limited to one geographic context.

The authors attempt to add a more nuanced understanding of the notion of boundaryless careers in relation to entrepreneurship generally and the transition of a group of women into self-employment specifically. Both the discourse and pragmatics of boundaries between work/life and past careers/new careers is more salient in terms of success than possibly historically understood in this domain, and the enactment of boundaries richer and more diverse than theory may currently account for.

The purpose this paper is to expand upon existing knowledge of this important topic by providing an expanded inventory of the causes and consequences of having enemies at work.

Qualitative data were collected from 412 respondents using an internet‐based questionnaire with respondents spanning a wide range of occupations, industries and nationalities. Using a structured methodology for handling a large data sample of qualitative responses, emergent thematic categories are identified and explained by means of verbatim text.

It was found that several aspects of the work environment directly exacerbated or created negative relationships which, in turn, negatively impacted respondents' experiences of work. Findings illustrate some strongly held employee expectations of behaviour and felt‐obligations defining both formal and informal organisational roles.

The findings discussed here emanate only from data emphasising negative relationships at work. A study into other relational factors may provide interesting and important points of comparison as well as serving to overcome the inevitable bias towards the negative within this inquiry.

The conclusions present a number of important challenges to employers and managers for anticipating and dealing with negative co‐worker relationships. Employees seek an equitable and reciprocal relationship with their organisations. An important lesson for management is that workers expect and depend upon their managers to provide support and assistance in overcoming negative workplace relationships.

The data, discussions and conclusions are derived from specific questions which have not previously been expressed in the literatures.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Employee response to any transition to open-plan offices can be hostile. Firms can guard against such negative reactions by involving all members in the change process and developing and sustaining an organizational culture that place strong value on communication, collegiality and inclusiveness.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

It is widely recognized by scholars that superhero stories tend to glorify vigilante justice; after all, these stories often maintain that extralegal acts of violence are necessary for combatting existential threats to personal and public safety. This scholarly common sense fosters a widespread dismissal of superhero stories as uncomplicated apologia for an authoritarian politics of law and order that is animated by hatred of unpopular people and ideas. However, some prominent contemporary Batman stories, including those told in the graphic novels of Grant Morrison and in the blockbuster movies of Christopher Nolan, are ambivalent: in their portraits of Batman and Joker as dark twins and secret colleagues, these stories both legitimize and challenge the countersubversive politics of American law and order.